Matthew McConaughey accepts the Oscar for best actor for his role in the film, Dallas Buyers Club at the 86th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California March 2, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - Matthew McConaughey won the Oscar for best actor on Sunday for his role in Dallas Buyers Club as a homophobic, rodeo-loving Texan who contracts Aids and becomes an unlikely savior for gay patients and drug addicts desperate for treatment.

The win is the first Academy Award for McConaughey, once known primarily as a handsome leading man in romantic comedies.

In Dallas Buyers Club, the actor lost some 23kg to play real-life crusader Ron Woodroof, a cowboy who fought the government for access to Aids medicines in the 1980s.